Live theater returns to downtown Buffalo in the form of Alleyway Theatre’s 30th season of Buffalo Quickies.
by Ann Marie Cusella
During Buffalo Quickies, five of the six plays are presented in different locations outside along Main Street in Downtown Buffalo
Live Theater Lives: An Evening at Alleyway Theatre
On a gorgeous just-about-summer evening, live theater returned to downtown Buffalo Thursday night in the form of Alleyway Theatre’s 30th season of Buffalo Quickies. And what a return the sold-out evening turned out to be. Alleyway served up six delicious bite-sized plays that delighted the palate and left the audience full and satisfied.
Keeping the safety of the actors and audience as a priority, Executive Artistic Director Chris J. Handley and his team conjured up a unique and successful system. Five of the plays are presented in a different location outside on the 600 block of Main Street between Shea’s Smith Theatre and Shea’s 710. Actors perform in windows while the audience, wearing sterilized headphones to hear dialogue, sit on the sidewalk in a cordoned off area. Chairs are socially distanced. Audience members are broken up into groups A through E. Each group has an usher who leads it to a new location as the actors perform the plays for each group. One play is inside with the audience on the stage looking down onto the set. This creative, clever, and complex system went off without a hitch for my group as we strolled along Main Street from one setting to another, chatting about the plays and enjoying the warm night.
Actors at two Buffalo Quickies locations
In the order in which Group E saw the plays, they are as follows:
The Yellow Wallpaper is a 20-minute musical, book and lyrics by Sam Norman, music by Eliza Randall. It is based on an 1892 feminist short story about a new mother confined by her doctor and husband to a room where she begins to see a shadow of a woman living in the wallpaper. Kelly Copps is the woman who tries very very hard to be positive and smile, smile, smile. Steve Copps is her arrogant husband, and Amy Jakiel her sister-in-law caretaker. This definitely-not-a-musical-comedy is directed by Susan Drozd with musical direction by Philip Farugia.
Pay Your Ferryman by Lauren Davenport is the indoor 10-minute play wherein Victor M. Morales as that ancient guide to the underworld, Charon, ferries the no longer living to Hades. He is in a state, listening to Queen’s Somebody to Love, overwhelmed by his work, and missing the little magician he once knew. Guess who are the no longer living? Direction is by Chris J. Handley.
Helen Mirren Takes a Day Off, by Alex Lin, stars Shanntina Moore as that trifecta winner of stage and screen. She is having a bad day. What with the phone ringing constantly, her dog ill, her brother being a pest, and Judi Dench haranguing her, how is a Dame of the Empire supposed to learn a new Shakespearean monologue? Oh, but she is Helen Mirren after all. Ms. Moore plays her to the hilt. Direction is by Steve Vaughan.
Pay your ferryman indeed during Buffalo Quickies
Grown-Ass Louis by Bruce Walsh, stars Trevor Dugan as a man-boy who sent a balloon note to his dead father when he was 11, and David C. Mitchell in several roles. I particularly liked his scuba outfit, but the fright wig/bathrobe was also in the running. The play ponders what forms grief takes. Direction is by Chris J. Handley.
And last for Group E, but certainly not least, is Lily and Tessa’s Super Star Show, Episode 37 by Devon Hayakawa. Jane Hereth has great tween presence as 12-year-old Tessa. She has been waiting for her friend Lily to show up so they can film their new episode. Tessa loves the Spice Girls and has posters of all her favorite celebrities in her very messy, very girly room. What has happened to keep Lily away? Will she come after all? Hmmm. Direction is by Robyn Lee Horn.
There are so many parts and pieces that contribute to the overall experience of the plays and the evening itself that it is impossible to name them all. The well-chosen sets range from simple to complex. Music accompanies each play, selected for its relevance to the action and creating a mood before and sometimes after each play. For instance, Ethel Merman sings There’s No Business Like Show Business before the Helen Mirren play. What a hoot!
A great many creative people contributed to this unique evening of theater. Kudos to all of them.
You can see Buffalo Quickies outdoors on Main Street through July 10th. Go for it. You’ll be glad you did.
Dates, Tickets and More Information
Buffalo Quickies runs Wednesday–Saturday at 8:00 p.m. from June 17th to July 10th.
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